It’s National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day!

Honest to goodness!

I left a fresh-picked cucumber on my neighbor’s patio last night. Today, after coming home from running some errands, my neighbor’s grown daughter was out back playing with their dog.

“Hey, Clarissa! Did you get the cucumber I left for you guys?” I asked.

She looked at me kind of funny as she said yes, thanks. “Did you know it’s National Give your neighbor some zucchini day?” she asked, thinking that was why I left the cuc.

“You’re kidding, right?” I laughed out loud at the appropriateness of such a holiday. For backyard gardeners  in zone 4/5 areas,  this is the time of the season when most of us have zucchini coming out of our ears! You can’t GIVE it away! And really, how much zucchini bread can a person eat?

After exchanging pleasantries with my neighbor I went inside and immediately googled this funny-sounding holiday. You know what? It’s even better than I thought!

It’s actually called National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day! and a couple of the sites I found say the ritual actually consists of stealing over to your neighbor’s porch or patio under the cover of NIGHT and leaving all the zucchini you can get away with, including the ones that grew way too large and aren’t good for much other than as a receptacle for cucumber dip, or something like that. The following AllRecipes.com link provides the back story about how this holiday came to be AND a recipe for zucchini chocolate cake! Sounds yummy! http://budurl.com/zucchini

New Use for 4 mil Black Plastic

Because I used to live in a zone 5 climate (now I’m in zone 4), I use black plastic to warm up my tomato and pepper beds in the spring. I keep a couple of sheets of 4-mm-thick black plastic in the Tool Shed (aka my car).

After amending the soil, I anchor the plastic with bricks, or whatever else is lying around, on top of the beds where I’ll transplant my heat-loving plants and let it sit there for a couple of weeks. We all know black absorbs the sun, so it helps to accelerate the sun’s warming effects AND smothers pesky weed seeds before they have much of a chance to take off.

4 mil black plastic is incredibly versatile!

I know 4 mil black plastic has a variety of other uses as well, such as makeshift rain poncho, wood chip carrier, ground cover for a picnic blanket, and most recently–a shower curtain!

I was 3 days at my new place in freezing cold Wisconsin and hadn’t yet ventured out to find a Target to stock up on the typical new home stuff: wastebaskets, shower caddy, shower curtain, you know, the usual stuff. I was dying for a shower but didn’t want water to spray all over, never even considered a bath (I’m just not much of a bath person) … what to do, what to do. Then it dawned on me that I still had some black plastic folded up neatly in the hatchback of my car! I draped it over the shower curtain rod and clipped it in place with a couple of binder clips at either end, rinsed last year’s dirt off of it, and it worked just fine! Best shower I’d had in a long time, as a matter of fact.

Rich Schefren, one of my small-business coaches, liked to remind us that entrepreneurs who were resourceful were often more successful than those who just looked for resources. I doubt he had 4 mil black plastic in mind when he said that.

12-Step Program for Worm Smokers?

I’m concerned one of my gardening buddies has a problem. Amanda Thomsen, newest blogger for Horticulture magazine (you can follow her on Twitter at @kissmyaster), posted the following: “I covered up the vermiculture smell with incense-now I smell like I’ve been smoking worms and I’m trying to hide it.”

Apparently, Amanda separated out some worms from her worm bin to give to a friend who was starting his or her own vermicompost. Amanda’s husband commented that she smelled “worm-y,” so Amanda lit some incense.

Concerned for my friend’s well-being, I responded promptly: “You do know that smoking worms leads to harder stuff; next thing you know, you’ll be popping rolly pollies (aka pill bugs).”

If anybody knows of a 12-step program for gardening junkies, please send me (@FarmerPhoebe) or @kissmyaster the link right away. Lives hang in the balance.